GOOGLE CARS THAT YOU HAVE OWNED & POST IN CORRECT COLOUR & SEQUENCE.

Unless otherwise stated, all pix are from the net as I can't find my photo album. Finding the correct colour is almost impossible.

My first was a Morris Z drophead utility with a wooden tray thatI bought when I was 12 or 13. I picked strawberries at a farm in Calamvale (Brisbane) to earn the 10 pounds it cost. I don't have a pic of mine so from the 'net.

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My second was a Vespa 125 my sister and I bought when I was 14 and she was 13. Also from the 'net:

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Third was a Renault 4CV at 15. This pic is of my son replicating a photo I have of me doing the same thing:

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Then at 16, I bought a 1938 Vauxhall Model J 14hp 6-cylinder that was Holden-bodied. Unusual for the time was the 4 wheel hydraulic brakes and independent front suspension. This car I drove from Calamvale to St. Marys (Sydney) when I was 16 and unlicenced. The car was unregistered, too but it had plates from my grandfather's Vauxhall attached. I got it registered and drove it for a couple of years.

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Next was a Sunbeam-Talbot 90 IIA, I would have been 18. I lost it on a corner the day I registered it. Up an embankment after crossing the railway line at Werrington but it was undamaged, so drove it home before any cops came along.

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Then a Jaguar MkVII when I was 20. I wrote this off at Narrabri when I was 21 on my way back to Moree from Sydney. I was forced off the road by an oncoming truck on my side of the road. I was particularly annoyed as I'd just had it repainted navy blue.

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While living in Moree in 1968, I bought a Yamaha YDS2 250cc twin 2-stroke. It went really well - whn it was going. I seized the motor (couldn't get the right 2-stroke oil in Moree), broke the crankshaft (had it repaired in Sydney), had the kickstarter fail (all the teeth worn off the quadrant but we repaired that at work). I don't recall what happened to that bike. (This pic is of my bike.)

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This required me to buy another car as I was just about to be transferred to Ceduna, SA in Nov 1969.
I found my fiancee's Vauxhall Viva that she'd traded in on a Corolla for her mum so I bought it back. This is that car (fiancee, now wife, on the bonnet at Moree, pic taken Jan 1969):

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Next, the Hillman Hunter Royal 660 we bought new (our first new car) in Carnarvon in 1971. We traded the Viva in on the Hunter, pictured here at work in Carnarvon where I worked as a technical officer. The Hunter stayed in the family from 1971-2008. It’s still on the road in Canberra.

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That'll do for now.

Cripes Ron, you make me feel like a Neanderthal ; I bought my first car at age 28

I was driving my grandfather’s Ford Custom 300 to the servo to fuel up when I was 12, on Beaudesert Rd, calamvale.
Oh, my parents never paid for any of my cars, I had to work to earn the money. Dad never had the money - single income with 6 kids.

Ron, a close friend of mine had a slightly earlier Vauxhall, but it looked like that one. It had cable brakes, that added a spice of uncertainty to driving - they never seemed to work on more than three wheels, and it was a different three for every application. It also had "knee action" suspension, which, while a fascinating setup, tended to give it a knock kneed appearance.

It was replaced by a '34 Ford V8 - went like arocket, but didn't stop very well, although fortunately the brakes were predictable.

Oddly enough the Holden-built Vauxhall was 12v and had electric wipers - unlike the first Holdens, 6v and vacuum wipers.

In many ways the UK motor industry in 1938 was in many respects much more advanced than the US motor industry in 1948 - not that the 48-215 was a 1948 design - it was, I believe a planned 1942 Chevrolet. But still applies.

Note that that Vauxhall would have had a Holden Body on an imported chassis rather that being literally Holden-built.

Most UK built cars except perhaps the absolute bottom of the market ones had moved to 12v systems by about 1930. The US industry had the advantage post war that they had another two years of recovery from the depression before entering the war, and then spent a lot of their wartime effort making military vehicles, where in the UK most car manufacturers spent the war building military equipment other than motor vehicles. And after the war the UK manufacturers mostly had to restart with 1939 designs (or earlier) sometimes slightly refreshed, where the US firms started with 1941 designs.

Not to mention that by and large few of the US car factories had to contend with bombs coming through their roofs.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

Note that that Vauxhall would have had a Holden Body on an imported chassis rather that being literally Holden-built. .

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Yes. the badge said something like Body by Holden. I said Holden-built as many on here wouldn't have known Holden were body builders.

The rear was different to the UK models, too. It had a proper boot.

I am surprised how many people owned Hillman Hunters!
We had one in the early 80's, a Hillman Hunter GT.
It had twin carbies which may have been the GT bit?
It broke down the night we bought it but after some repairs did drive from Toowoomba to Canberra & back with only minor problems.
It got totalled when a Ford LTD hit it head on while waiting to turn right at an intersection, neither wife, daughter or self hurt but the old Hillary Hunter just disintegrated in front of us.

I recall it was a pretty ordinary car.
Jonesfam

The Roots Group Hillmans were very good cars but went down hill once in the hands of Chrysler. The Hillman Imp was Roots down fall , they had overheating & head problems but were a fun car to drive .

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Originally Posted by jonesfam

I am surprised how many people owned Hillman Hunters!
We had one in the early 80's, a Hillman Hunter GT.
It had twin carbies which may have been the GT bit?

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Twin carbs, alloy head, different cam, bigger brakes, power assisted, walnut dash (real wood!) with full instrumentation, better reclining seats with headrests, etc. The GT was renamed the Royal 660. When I'd get insurance, I'd be asked "Is it a GT?" I'd reply "No" and I wasn't slugged for having a GT. Mine here (after I repainted it in 1989):

Ron's Hillman Pages

We did 3 trips Carnarvon-Sydney in it. The first trip took 4 days (the Nullabor on the SA side was still dirt back then).